Owner of burgled house chooses prayer over prosecution

The owner of a vacant house in south Augusta decided not to press charges Sun­day against a man who was caught by a Richmond County sheriff’s deputy stealing copper wiring and tubing from the property.

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She said that instead, she wanted to pray for the man, a childhood friend of her son, according to a police report.

A deputy found the rear door ajar, then found the suspect in the middle room of the house holding several feet of copper wire and tubing, according to the report. A hammer and cutting shears were on the floor, and damage to the drywall and a nearby power receptacle was visible.

The man said he was “scrapping” and “didn’t think it was illegal because all the vacant homes were being bought by the county and they were going to just knock them down,” Officer Todd Beasley wrote in his report. Beasley seized the tools as evidence.

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For our youth! I know a few of the "thugs" who harm others and steal, etc. are from good families, but most are from homes that are a mess. I cannot imagine being raised in a situation like so many youths of today. May they somehow learn to turn to God, and learn the value and confidence building of good hard work.

This is my mother. First of all, why would you put her name and age with all the the identify theft going around. Yes we grew up this this guy, but my mother DID NOT SAY she wouldn't press charges. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that the RCSD was trying to sway her in not pressing charges.
YES she is a Christian and proud of it! And a sweet lady, but she's not stupid. AC you need to clean this up. LIES LIES LIES

My empathy to missmarilynd; I understand what you're saying. I reported a trespassing situation to the police one time, and what landed up in the paper was my name, none of the perps' and only the fact that they bared their bottoms to me, not the fact that they were trespassing, which they lied to the police about. I gave the police the owner's private phone number, which he had given me to keep an eye on his house and report any problems, and instead of checking that out they accepted the fact that the neighbor claimed that a relative owned the house and they had their permission to be on the property. They were not related and they did not have permission. So the thanks I get for helping out a neighbor was my name in the paper and being made to look like I was reporting something petty. I did not give my permission for my name to be published and if I reported every time those people mooned me I would have been reporting weekly. Good grief. The only vindication I have to show for it was one of the teenage female trespassers came down with a horrific case of poison ivy within hours and had a baby 9 months later. Sometimes there is justice after all.

Yes, it happens!! Sometimes on misdemeanor offenses, like harassing phone calls, where the deputy knows nothing serious will happen to the offender, deputies have been known to "talk the victim out of prosecuting". Offering to instead, call the offender and give them a stern warning from LE, or something like that.

But in this case? A Burglary, which is a felony? If I was the deputy's supervisor, and I found out he talked her out of prosecution, I would suspend him a couple days without pay!! Burglary, even on a vacant building is still a serious felony. Especially when large amounts of damage is done!! Sounds like this deputy didn't want to do the paperwork required to finish the case. Sad, very sad!!

She should pray for him (the lost) but also fulfill her societal obligations of giving Caesar his due and prosecute him. That would fulfill her moral obligations and he may make a change because without consequences she will likely enable a continuation of the same behavior. She can be supportive of him in court.

corgimom, that's exactly my points, so what is yours in repeating the obvious, except to be snarky? They don't need to ask permission, it is a public record, that's the problems. The possible perps are protected, the probable or possible victims, not and their personal information being publicized makes them more vulnerable. Or don't you have a problem with that?

For corn's sake, AL, the people that you called the cops on, knew exactly who you were and where you lived. Your idea of confidentiality is not realistic. If they want retaliation, it's easy for them to do.

That's what happens when you call the police. It's very easy to find out who called. The calls are not anonymous, and publishing the information in the paper doesn't make much difference.

People watch too much tv, they see things on tv and then they try to apply that to real life. On tv, the cops and the dispatchers never give out information like that, and nobody listens to police scanners, and nobody has friends or relatives that work in the jails or police department or in dispatching that tell that information. That's why it's pretend.

Criminals and scum watch everything in a neighborhood and they know everything that goes on. They don't have constructive things to do, so they keep very close tabs on everybody and everything. Until you've lived up close to it and in it, you really don't realize how they operate. It's interesting, but also repulsive, to see how the criminal mind really works.

I'm not talking about the police taking my name, or even dispatch tipping off the neighbors (that was addressed, and it was a long time ago). If you had any idea the stack of police reports I had to deal with personally at that time and through the neighborhood association (I was sent to go through them), you would not even have made that statement. I knew they knew who called the police, and I made no secret of it in that situation anyway. I just don't think the PAPER should have printed my name or the woman's above. If they weren't going to print the alleged perp's name, they shouldn't be printing the alleged victim's name even more so.

Are you kidding me? One of our neighbors used to spend nearly every waking moment on the police scanner. She had to, her nephews were dealing drugs. That's how she knew when the police were coming. Another one of our frequent posters in past years spent hours and hours on his police scanner and it wasn't his job either. There are people whose whole lives revolve around the police scanner for one reason or another, some to protect their activities, some for entertainment. Several neighbors with teenagers came to me after the woman passed that was listening in to my calls to dispatch and told me what she had been doing. I had suspected someone in that household was, and just kept calling as I saw things happening figuring she couldn't be on there 24/7. It was frustrating but eventually paid off with a few calls unnoticed by her and a lucky break on the dispatch officers I reached; we finally got a few of the dealers around the block arrested one by one, some more than once over the years. I had children and property to protect and nowhere else to go, and yes, we were retaliated against. It's to be expected.